E is for Energy
by immertreu
Summary: Jack O'Neill's lighter and Skaara play an important role in helping Daniel adjust to his new life on Abydos.


A/N: Thank you, IcyWaters, for the beta!

This is a bridge between Stargate (the movie) and Stargate SG-1. Written for the Stargate Friendship Alphabet Soup at LJ.

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><p><strong>E is for Energy<strong>

by immertreu

October 17, 2014

Daniel Jackson had been on Abydos for more than a month, but more often than not he still felt like a stranger among these people he now called family. Sha're, Skaara and Kasuf had welcomed him with open arms, but Daniel still had trouble accepting everything that had happened to him in such a short time.

He had been vindicated, traveled to another planet, incited a rebellion and killed a "god", and, most importantly, he'd found the love of his life.

Sha're was a wonder to him, perfect in too many ways to tell. She knew his heart like no one else. She loved to tease him, too, but she also taught him everything he needed to know in this new environment. Daniel was no stranger to sand and wastelands – his travels with his parents before their untimely deaths had often led them to equally hot and dirty digs in Egypt and Jordan – but Abydos' dangers were different from that of Earth's deserts.

Therefore, wherever Daniel went, someone made sure to follow him and keep an eye on the curious but sometimes oblivious member of their tribe that had suddenly appeared in their midst. Sha're would never forgive her family and friends if anything were to happen to her new husband. There were still predators about, even though Ra and his minions had perished.

Inwardly grinning at the thought of a furious Sha're demanding why her husband had fallen prey to a sandworm or walked off a cliff, Daniel slowly made his way up a dune right outside the city gates and looked down the slanted slope facing away from Nagada. He didn't want to go far, he just needed some space for himself, a place to think.

Today it was Skaara's turn to follow Daniel, and although he had pretended not to notice the younger man trailing him, Daniel sighed and waited for his brother-in-law to join him on the crest of the sandy hill.

Skaara grinned when he caught up with his new brother. He wasn't in the least intimated by the unwelcoming stare and stiff posture the other man adopted. Jack O'Neill had been much more scarier when they first met.

They stood in silence for a while, each lost in their thoughts, until Skaara tugged on the wide sleeve of Daniel's new tunic that Sha're had finished for him only last night. Curious, Daniel turned to Skaara and then followed the younger man's outstretched hand. He was pointing toward some kind of smaller building nestled against the outer wall of the city they had just left. Skaara was right; they should find some shelter and not stand around in the middle of the desert in the midday heat. So when he spun around and started clambering down the dune, back towards Nagada, Daniel followed him.

Communication with the people of Abydos had remarkably improved since Daniel's first halting – and disastrous – attempts at speaking with them, but Skaara was still shy to try out his new language skills with Daniel. He wasn't coy, per se, but he preferred to master a new task before showing it to others. He was a little slower in picking up Daniel's English terms than Sha're, for example, but he was a good student when he put his mind to it. Still, he chose his words very carefully, some might even say wisely.

Daniel silently approved of this tactic. He knew he could learn a lot in that regard from his younger companion. Grinning ruefully – his mouth had gotten Daniel in more trouble than he could recount in this life – he walked on in Skaara's footsteps.

They made their way to the hut huddled against the palisade surrounding the city, Skaara leading the way and Daniel looking around in wonder, as always. He still hadn't gotten used to this place. His home. Such a strange concept for someone who had been shoved around from foster home to foster home in his youth, and even ended up on the street as a young, brilliant but shunned academic because he couldn't pay his bills anymore.

Swallowing thickly, Daniel admonished himself for dwelling on his current situation – after all, no one had forced him to stay. On the contrary, he had been more than happy to leave his miserable life on Earth behind and start fresh with Sha're and her people. Yet sometimes he couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he had gone back after all. Would his peers in the academic community finally have accepted his claims? Or would the military have forbidden him to publish anything at all, put him in a dark room and told him to shut up for the rest of his life? Would Jack O'Neill have remembered their newfound friendship and grudging respect for each other or abandoned him the moment they stepped out of the other side of the gate?

Daniel shook his head to clear his thoughts and suddenly felt a little dizzy. The heat of the day had leeched him of more energy than he had realized.

Skaara stopped right outside the small building they had been aiming for and waved Daniel inside, picking up on the newcomer's heavy breathing and the sweat on his brow. Daniel knew he would get accustomed to his surroundings within a few weeks, but it still stung him to be so weak sometimes. At least his allergies were finally going down! It seemed there wasn't much here that even his huffy senses could be allergic to anymore. Well, as long as he stayed away from the mastages, the huge beasts of burden that, incredibly, had taken a liking to him and tried to lick him whenever he came near.

Grateful to arrive in the cooler interior of the tiny, unoccupied house, Daniel sank against the left-hand wall and dug out the canteen Sha're had forced on him the moment he went out on his first investigation of his new home. "Never forget this!" she told him. She had been right, of course. Water was life in this world.

Skaara entered the hut a few seconds later and closed the flap that served as the door. Now the midday heat was kept outside, but the interior of the windowless, one-room building was hard to make out. He took out the lighter Jack O'Neill had given him not so long ago and set about building a small fire with dried dung and a few tiny sticks he always kept in his belt pouch for such a purpose. Neither of them was carrying an oil lamp or something resembling a light because there had seemed no need for it in the middle of the day.

In moments like this, Daniel missed his old life. Comforts like flashlights and running water would have been wonderful additions to this relatively primitive lifestyle, yet Daniel didn't crave them too much. There were always other ways. Even the lighter wouldn't have been needed, but Daniel knew Skaara loved to show off his new tool. He just hoped the younger man wouldn't run out of fuel too soon. There would be no way to refill it – ever.

Sighing, Daniel closed his eyes, the canteen still in hand, and listened to Skaara work. He started when he heard his brother-in-law's voice in the stillness of the uninhabited hut.

"Dan'yel?"

Slowly, he opened his eyes again and found Skaara looking at him from his place by the tiny fire he'd created in the middle of the room. "Yes?" he asked, curious by his companion's tone. Normally, Skaara was full of life and laughter, not unlike his sister, but right now he sounded pensive and serious. Daniel cleared his throat and tried again. "What is it, Skaara?" He knew his pronunciation of the Abydonian words was slightly off by the grin on Skaara's face, but then the smile fell away and got replaced by a ruminative look.

Skaara spoke haltingly, groping for words he had just learned. "I know what this…" he sighed and raised the lighter in his hand, "…does, but how?" He stared at it as if he had never seen it before.

The Abydonians knew of modern technology, of course, but they had never learned to build for themselves any of the helpful tools their "god" possessed That had been reserved for Ra and his followers. His slaves had to work by hand, with either the simple instruments they were given or could create from their surroundings.

Daniel got up and slowly walked over to their impromptu campfire, trying to figure out how to put something into words he had never tried to explain before. He sat down next to Skaara and gently took the Zippo from the younger man's hand.

"O'Neill told you that we call it a 'lighter', yes?"

Skaara nodded, and Daniel continued. "We call it that because it creates light. It takes fuel which we fill inside, and makes it burn." Seeing Skaara's blank look he added, "Fuel is a liquid, uh, substance, a little bit like water or moonshine." Both of them grinned, remembering their hidden distillery in one of the lesser used storerooms at home. "It burns, like wood or dung."

Daniel winced at his own inadequate explanation and hurried on, "Inside this…" he raised the lighter for emphasis, "…is a small stone and a wheel, similar to the tools you have, when you use two rocks or sticks to make a fire."

Skaara nodded. This he understood, at least in part. "But how does it make light?" He stopped and thought for a moment. "No. I mean, how does it make fire? And why doesn't it get hot?" He was switching to Abydonian now, trying to understand a foreign concept that wasn't that strange at all – just different from the methods he knew.

They stared at each for a moment until Daniel spoke again, searching for simple words. "When you press the lever, uhm, the button, the stone and the wheel inside the lighter rub against each other and create energy which has to go somewhere. The fuel wants to burn, and because the spark needs to escape, you get a flame…fire. And it doesn't get hot because the fire is at the top, not at the bottom."

Daniel chastised himself, knowing his explanation was seriously lacking, but he didn't know how else to explain it at this moment, with their limited vocabulary in any common language and, if he was honest with himself, his own lack of knowledge of Zippos. Damn O'Neill and his top-notch equipment. He could at least have added a manual! Daniel almost snorted at the ridiculous notion. He was a doctor, yes, but one of archaeology and linguistics, not physics!

Skaara nodded, though, grasping the basic concept if not the sketchy details. Then he suddenly held out his hand, so Daniel handed back the lighter the younger man so clearly cherished.

"Does O'Neill know how this works?" Skaara hesitated and corrected himself, "No. I mean, did he know how much it would be of use to us? That it gives life and warmth and comfort to our people?"

Daniel started at the sudden leap in logic. Then again, Skaara's idea wasn't that farfetched. The lighter made building fires that much easier. It also created heat, gave much-needed light, was handier and easier to carry around than a staff-weapon, and also held a special place in a young man's heart. It was a reminder of the battle the Abydonians had fought for their freedom. It was a force to be reckoned with. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Daniel smiled and shrugged at the same time, not willing to commit to an answer on O'Neill's behalf, but strongly suspecting that his grumpy friend had known the Zippo would be much more than a simple memorabilia for Skaara and his tribe.

Skaara nodded knowingly and grinned. Then they settled back and looked into the fire once more. The flames were small enough as not to give off too much heat, but bright enough to illuminate their refuge. In fact, it was perfect for this peaceful moment spent in companionable silence.

Daniel's thoughts turned back to his former life, and he compared it to his current one. The lack of warmth and love he had experienced on Earth after his parents' deaths, the blazing heat and simple acceptance he had found on Abydos after many struggles and pain – they lay worlds apart. Literally.

Sha're's face rose before Daniel's inner eye, and he smiled. His beautiful wife was the reason he had stayed behind. She was smart and funny, willful but kind and compassionate, radiating energy and life. She was everything he had ever dreamed of – if he would have allowed himself to think of his future in such uncertain terms. Chuckling about his own sentimental foolishness, he felt Skaara's eyes on him and got up with new vigor in his movements.

"Come on, Skaara, let's go home."

Sha're was waiting. And Daniel suddenly knew he would be all right. These people loved him the way he was, and he loved them in return. What could ever go wrong?

**The End**


End file.
